Day 2659

Day 2659
Monday February 23rd 2026
Winchester

We’ve got a reprieve of a few rain-free days, allegedly. We’ll see about that! The top spot’s free…but it’s very windy and there’s nothing I can do about that. Fifteen minutes in, I hear an operatic voice somewhere down to the right, at the end of The Pentice, I’m assuming (because I can’t see anyone – the pillars are in the way). It’s a minor annoyance and I’m sure whoever she is, wasn’t there when I started.

I see a funny sight – a couple with two very fluffy small white dogs. The man is walking the larger of the two while the woman has the smaller one in a pram!

…two homeless blokes are at the Pentice entrance. One is trying to roll a cigarette but it’s taking ages because (a) he’s too stoned or (b) the wind’s not letting him…or both. He certainly looks like he’s on something.

Two teenage girls mime the words to Everybody Wants To Rule The World and I’m thinking, how many people think I’m doing this because it’s in Marty Supreme, the latest Timothee Chalumet effort – at the end, when he breaks down when his child is born – “Welcome to your life, there’s no turning back…”

At the end of an hour and ten minutes, I’ve had enough – of the cold on my fingers and of Maria Callas down the road, who’s definitely turned up (I reciprocated by turning up, myself). The friendly binman came by to empty the bins on my right – ‘You alright?’ he asks.
‘I was until SHE started up down there!’
‘Oh, is there someone down there? I can’t see anyone.’
I went into the middle of the road, had a look down and saw a black box at the bottom, a little way into the road, then a bit of a person – the culprit Ms Callas. ‘Yeah, she’s definitely there. Oh well, I was on my way back, anyway.’ The takings? £11.40 so we’re talking 2010 rates.